Thoughts for the Day

After this the Lord appointed seventy others and sent them on ahead of him in pairs to every town and place where he himself intended to go. He said to them, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into his harvest. Go on your way. See, I am sending you out like lambs into the midst of wolves. Carry no purse, no bag, no sandals; and greet no one on the road. Whatever house you enter, first say, “Peace to this house!” And if anyone is there who shares in peace, your peace will rest on that person; but if not, it will return to you. Remain in the same house, eating and drinking whatever they provide, for the labourer deserves to be paid. Do not move about from house to house. Whenever you enter a town and its people welcome you, eat what is set before you; cure the sick who are there, and say to them, “The kingdom of God has come near to you.”

(Lectionary, New Revised Standard Version)

Thoughts

Today we celebrate the life and work of Luke the Evangelist, the writer of the 'Gospel according to Luke' and the 'Acts of the Apostles'. We looked at the difference between a Disciple and an Evangelist before, but the article in Further Thoughts, is worth a glance since it gives a table of the similarities and differences between the two words. Evangelists focus on spreading the good news of Jesus in anyway possible; while the word 'Disciple' largely refers to a learner and follower.*

Luke was the friend of the Apostle Paul, and is mentioned three times in his letters. He calls him "the beloved physician", and in his second Letter to Timothy, as his only companion in prison. It is this person who says at the beginning of his work "I decided after investigating everything carefully from the very first, to write an orderly account". An educated Greek and therefore a gentile, but also a physician with a good understanding of the Hebrew scriptures, his gospel gives us different insights into those who are outcasts. Without his work we would have been deprived of the events of Jesus' birth through the eyes of his mother Mary, as well as some of the most well-known of parables, like 'The Good Samaritan' and 'The Prodigal Son', and miracles like the 'Healing of the Ten Lepers' and 'The Raising of the Widow of Nain's Son'. Neither would we have had such a complete picture of the growth of the new Church as in his 'Acts of the Apostles'.

We know little more about Luke, though tradition says he wrote his gospel sometime around c80 CE in Greece and died in Boeotia at the age of eighty-four. Today, though, let us thank God for Luke's dedication and the way his works still continue to spread the good news of Jesus Christ today.

* Note: Jesus' own disciples, as well as Paul (previous name, Saul), were also commissioned by Jesus as 'Apostles', that is as his official emissaries to the world. See Matthew 28.18-20 and Acts 22.6-16.

Collect for Luke the Evangelist

Almighty God,
You called Luke the physician,
whose praise is in the gospel,
to be an evangelist and physician of the soul:
by the grace of the Spirit
and through the wholesome medicine of the gospel,
give Your Church the same love and power to heal;
through Jesus Christ Your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with You,
in the unity of the Holy spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Amen.